If I were Cass...

You get to develop the 2006 Texans, what would you do?

Here's my take.

Skill Offense-
QB: David Carr
RB: Domanick Davis/Reggie Bush (Draft Bush #1... he is a playmaker and an athlete, you can look at stats, player size bench reps and 40 times to judge a player, but you know you have a real athlete when you watch this kid on the field.
WR: Andre Johnson, Gaffney...etc...
TE: Draft Fasano out of Notre Dame early 2nd round, this kid is an all around TE, an athlete for his size... could be a sleeper in this upcoming draft.

Offensive Line-
Wow...where to start...
Sign Bentley from NO
Resign Mckinney for smaller contract
Use 3rd and 5th round picks on Offensive linemen


LT= Pitts LG=McKinney C=Bentley RG=Weary/Washington/5throundpick RT= Draft (3rd Round Pick)



Defensive Line

Throw Seth Payne and Travis Johnson at Defensive Tackles. Seth Payne has a very strong base and is a smart player...a good defensive tackle, put him wiht 3 other defensive players on the line and he ll be able to develop in what we need. Travis Johnson still has a lot of potential and playing on a 4 man front might really help jump start his career. Gary Walker and Robaire Smith can close off the ends to help complete a solid defensive line.

Linebackers
This is where we need a big sign/draft for one standout linebacker. Julian Peterson would be a perfect fit in my opinion. So our 3 would look like so:

Antwaan Peek Julian Peterson Kailee Wong


Defensive Backs Dunta Robinson no question shutdown corner, putting either Faggins or Buchanan opposite of him. At SS ive been most impressed by Notre Dame native Glenn Earl. For my 4th round pick I would draft the heavily underrated Dwayne Slay out of Texas Tech, he can come up and be a huge hitter and also makes big plays


Special Teams

PR= Buchanan
KR= Mathis (great year for him... hey i guess one good thing came out of 05)
K= Kris Brown
P=Chad Stanley

Several things that won't work out:

Drafting a TE in the 2nd round and leaving OLine to later would be a mistake, there should be some great OLinemen (OTs included available in the 2nd round, maybe even Eric Winston who is my top choice of an OLineman)

I like signing LeCharles Bentley and I think we could make that happen.

McKinney had better sign for a much smaller contract or else I'd cut him. He's still a decent run blocker but he's terrible at pass blocking and I'd much rather have Wiegert at LG than McKinney. If McKinney stays, he should be at RG for his runblocking but I'd definitely draft a guy (maybe Davin Joseph in the 2nd if we can trade down and pick up an extra 2nd rounder) to compete for the spot, so we'd have: LT=Pitts, LG=Wiegert, C=Bentley, RG=draft pick (hopefully Davin Joseph)/McKinney, RT=draft pick (hopefully Eric Winston).

In a 4-3, we cannot have any of those guys at DE. If we do we'd be pretty solid against the runs up the middle because our DL would not be pushed around very easily, but teams could get to the outside on us pretty easily and we would get no pass rush whatsoever. If anything among them, Walker and Payne should be DTs while Smith and Johnson are DEs, but that still is a bad idea. If we're going to leave them up front we might as well stay in a 3-4 where they're better suited to all be in there, if we switch to a 4-3 we can bring Babin down to one DE and we'd need to bring in another one, maybe Mario Williams after trading down or else find someone else in free agency, maybe John Abraham. Peek could play situational DE but he'd have to gain 20+ lbs. to play it full-time.

Peterson would be nice but I don't see the 49ers letting him go unless it's part of a trade (maybe to get Reggie Bush at #1 or something like that). Either way, Greenwood and Wong are both staying here and need to play because of their contracts, and that leaves Orr and Peek as capable 4-3 OLBs battling for the third spot with Wong at MLB and Greenwood at the other OLB, that's not an especially strong group but it's serviceable and we're kind of stuck with it for now.

Bringing in a S would be good, but I'd get more of a coverage safety rather than a hard-hitter. Coleman used to be nice at that but obviously he doesn't care anymore, and I think Earl and Brown are both decent tacklers but neither can cover, so if we get a S we need to get more of a cover guy like Michael Huff (I doubt we can get him unless we trade way down in the 1st round and get him with our first pick or else trade back up into the later 1st round and get him there, but someone more like him would be better). I'm hoping we can get something more than a punt returner out of Buchanon this year but I don't know on him.

No to Dwayne Slay (S from TTech); He can hit but his coverage skills are not good enough at this point for the NFL. I would rather pick Jaxson Appel in a later round. He is a very smart player and a good tackler. Also I think that Joel Klopfenstein (TE from Colorado) can be had in either 3rd or 4th round so no to Fasano and instead go OL in 2nd round. I like Fasano alot but realistically, we might be able to pick up Tatusi Lutui, Max Jean-Gilles, or Winston Justice in early 2nd round to bolster the OL.

I like the idea of LeCharles Bently coming here as well as resigning McKinney to a lower deal and a good MLB to go with a possible switch to 4-3. I wish we could get Bobby Carpenter (Ohio State) but he will be gone in 2nd round.

if I were Cass, I would resign as the GM, admit that I ruined an opportunity to build a team from the ground up and let someone who has a clue step in to the GM job....

If i were the GM i would try somthing like this
Scenario 1 Without Trade
Round 1 Bush
Round 2 Parham or Hodges
Round 3 Eslinger 6-3 285 good fit for zone blocking
Round 3 Mangold 6-4 290 also good fit for zone blocking
Round 4 Slay

Offense
QB Carr
RB Bush and DD share the load
WR AJ, Gaff, Jmathis
Oline
Pitts / Eslinger / Bently or Hogdgon / Mangold / Wiegert

Defense
Dline
Babin / Payne / Walker / FA A Weaver with Peek coming in on passing downs
Linebackers
Wong / Hodges or Parham / Greenwood who is a better fit in a 4-3 defense
Secondary
Drob / Earl / Slay / Pbuch

Scenario 2 with trade
Trade the first pick to the jets for two first round picks a third round pick and John Abraham

Round 1 Mario Williams
Round 2 Hodges or Parham unless a higher ranked LB slips
Round 3 Eslinger
Round 3 Will Blackmon CB/WR from BC
Round 3 Mangold
Round 4 Slay

Our offense would stay the same as last years other than the oline wich would be the same as scenario 1.
Oline
Pitts / Eslinger / Bently or Hogdgon / Mangold / Wiegert

Defense
Dline the exciting part
Mario Williams / Payne or TJ / Walker / J Abraham This Dline would dominate
Linbackers
Wong / Parham or Hodges / Greenwood
Secondary
Drob / Earl / Slay / Will Blackmon

In both Scenarios I would look for a coverage S, TE, and another WR with the first three picks in next seasons draft.

The only problem with your scenario, bubba, is that both Mangold and Eslinger are centers. They may be versatile enough to play guard but they excel at the center position and that is why they will be drafted: to play center.

if i were cass i would just be jumping for joy and living everyday to the fullest and preparing to burn in hell for eternity because he must have sold his soul to keep his job

Spoda said:

if i were cass i would just be jumping for joy and living everyday to the fullest and preparing to burn in hell for eternity because he must have sold his soul to keep his job

Click to expand...

ROFL ROFL....

Bubba, not bad plans on either of them, but I agree that both Mangold and Eslinger are excellent centers and I don't know how well they'd switch over to OG. Setterstrom from Minnesota is an excellent OG that could be available at the same spot you had us taking Eslinger, so he might be the better option there, plus Wiegert is better as a OG, so I'd prefer we grab an OT in the 2nd round and bump Wiegert back to OG, and maybe look for a OG in the 4th-5th round to sit behind Wiegert for a year and groom as the future starter. I also would keep Robaire Smith as a 4-3 DT, that's what he played at Tennessee before coming here and I think he would still be a very good option there.